A bit on my hunter

Look – a WoW post (grin).

I do not know if I can get across to you the frustration I’m having as a hunter right now, but I’m going to try. You see, I don’t know enough to gut-check my theory numbers. For that matter, I’m frustrated with which theory numbers to run. Confused? So am I.

Here’s the deal. Right now, Urtica is 64, BM spec. I’ve gotten really, really comfortable with the spec. But I am also VERY aware that I’m being lazy. Actually, I HAVE TO BE lazy – which leads to some philosophical pondering on huntards.

Here’s the deal. If I open up – really use my shot selection and talents – I yank aggro off my pet. And I am solo. I discovered this the other day when I chanced across a couple of friends who asked me to help them with Marticar. Now, I’d had my hands full the last three times I’d tried – party of five in the mid-60s of which one was my priest each time, at least two wipes each time. This time, my friend the 64 prot-warrior, his companion the 64 priest, and me with my 64 hunter and 63 pet. One wipe – but 5%? Ahem, settle, figure out my strategy, hit ALL the buttons, and Boom down he goes. And I was watching my Omen threatmeter, and I blew past my cat’s threat. Heck, I’d have blown past the threat of my owl, and even the boar I tried for a bit. Holy. Crap.

Which brings me back to the pondering. A huntard is someone who doesn’t know how to “figure out the strategy and hit ALL the buttons”. Now, I’d always assumed it was because leveling a hunter as BM is fairly mindless – and that element is there. But I now suspect something more insidious — new hunters are PUNISHED for pushing their limits. Go overboard beyond a safety trap and POP! – the mob abandons your pet to try and gnaw on YOUR leg.

And lets face it. Once burned by doing something we all try not to get burned that way again. So, I’m wondering if at least some of the “huntards” out there are playing that way not because they don’t know better but because, well, when they tried to do better they learned it was a bad idea. shrug – it’s a possibility.

But all that philosophy is a digression. See, I have a problem. I am fascinated by the SV spec. Well, say better specs. I am still astounded at all the good options hunters have in all their trees, but SV is… There are some less than optimal choices, but you can make a good case for just about everything in the first five tiers. What you choose depends mostly on what you prefer – and you WILL have to leave something off. Now we come to my problem.

Right now, I’m a solo player. But I think I want to start running in BGs. And I can see a very nice couple of SV specs for that. Now I know that anyone under x5 in BGis a handicap — heck, under x8 is hurting. But countering this are a few minor points — I’m going to be a handicap anyway till I learn; With zero anything right now I need to start getting points/gear and the sooner I start the sooner I get; though it does gimp the victory a bit, it’s still supposed to be fun for me too. (Boy, there’s a post waiting to happen. Having fun that interferes with other people’s fun. If you’re not a selfish pig — and I’ve learned better — other peoples’ fun matters too.)

Balancing that, SV has some nice things that sorta balance the fact of my lowliness. So, I’ve got a few options that’ll make me useful in various BGs. The problem is…

It makes me worse at soloing. It will – I think – severely gimp my pets’ ability to tank. And with the exception of AV, there’s no XP in the battlegrounds. And it’s nice to talk of kiting — and I must practice it more — but kiting is slower kills (and time running back for the next mob), and, well, I’m spoiled.

I want to get on up there – I’ve a couple of guilds who want my priest and will ‘tolerate’ a hunter of my level, but to play with them he really needs to be closer to 70 than he is at present.

Let me focus this ramble. I think I’m going to respec SV (again). It’ll make me more useful in BGs, balancing the fact that at 64 I am going to get LOTS of “go away noob” comments. In addition to the insults, there’ll be the fact that I won’t be as good at leveling. And to add the last point of frustration, I’m not really sure what talents I should take – not just endgame, but the six I should leave off “for now” and grow into later.

If you really want to have fun and be successful in PVP as a lower lvl survival hunter, attach yourself to a well geared mage/hunter/Spriest/moonkin, and cause as much disruption as you can. Your DPS will be terrible compared to an epiced 70s, but you can increase other people’s ability to do damage by CCing opponents at every opportunity, and reducing the damage that they take.

I just respeced to SV for raid/group utility this week and have found it challenging and fun. Soloing is slower and pet has more difficulty keeping aggro due to the crit machine I have become, but feign death FTW. I don’t know if I would recommend SV until 70 though, the BM tree is so friendly to leveling and soloing. I have a suggestion for BG strategy that is fun, specialize in teaming up with people that are on defense. A frost or fire trap by a flag with the pet stationed near by on aggressive, with you somewhere in hidding waiting for that stealthed player to approach the flag, bam…they hit the trap and the pet starts carving them up and you open up on them with concussive shot. That is a bad start of a fight for most people, and if you have teamed up with someone on defense then they should now be able to open up on the target with their bag of tricks. The other strategy is to let the other person on defense open up on someone, works well with warriors and feral druids, and then pour everything you have on their target. If you are a under level hunter in BGs always use your trinkets and cooldowns at the start of a fight, you may not live long enough to use them later. For a discussion of SV spec and talents for PVP I suggest looking at BRK’s forums, where I have been getting my info.

The type of pet can make a big difference too. At level 70, I can pull aggro off my Carrion bird without any problem (Sting,Auto,Steady,Arcane,Auto,Steady, Hi Mr. Monster), but my boar can keep aggro pretty well (I’m gaining on his threat, but things die before I catch him). Another thing to consider is, don’t be afraid to Feign early and Feign often.

Jabari and Grover – I tried a boar at level 58 – took the time to get him to loyalty 6 even. As a BM I could pull aggro off him if I unloaded. I have no reason to doubt that I could pull it off a boar at my level, and especially if I respecced to something that decreased boar dps while increasing my own.

I’ve seen the minmax work saying the best pet is boar or scorpid or windserpent or, well, the list goes on. Turns out that after reading a lot there is one truth: Every pet has its adherent, its faithful devotee, and these are the people who will say the particular breed is “the best”.

I have a cat – a lynx – that I picked up around level 14 or so. I did a lot of dying on a run into blood elf territory to get her. And the number of people who are going to get that skin as Alliance are slim – not when it means either the dead run OR leveling up a very low pet. I will not abandon it.

I also have an owl. Now it’s possible I’d replace it – it is a lesson learned (that deserves a “Yes, I was that stupid” blog post someday). And I’ve discovered already that the annoying constant screech is almost as useful as the big wingspan against a PVP player. (Go ahead, focus on my pet.) And the aggro gain from screech seems to be almost as good – though not as good as fast – as the boar’s gain from charge. But all those arguments are minor. I do not like the boar, just as a matter of taste.

Now if we ever get more stable slots there are pets I’ll add. I’d like a scorpid, for one. And the warp stalker and windserpents entice me. Sometimes I wish for a gorrilla’s thunderstomp. And on, and on, and on.

But until I’m 70 I’ll have two pets. One will be Lyalli, and the other will probably continue to be Hyperborea. After that… we’ll see.

I can certainly sympathize with the insufficient stable slots issue. And it is worth keeping a cat around as a DPS pet. Still, it might be worth trying a boar again – 58 is just under the level required for max rank charge. The big disadvantage of a boar is that the highest level boar available is level 60, and being too low-level can make a big difference in the effectiveness of keeping aggro.

That said, the choice of pet is definitely a matter of taste, and it’s easy enough to solve aggro problems with appropriate use of Feign Death, so whatever works for you is fine.

About…

I've experience with many priests of many races and specs on several servers. The more I play, the more I realize how much I do not yet know. This is a share of some of what I have learned.
My main these days is Zingiber on the Undermine server.